IRL Blog

Welcome Cohort Five Research Leaders!

These 15 teams of researchers and community leaders will spend the next three years (2020-2023) working together to explore critical issues in their home communities and apply findings in real time to create healthier and more equitable policies and places to live. 

Research Theme: Community Environment and Health

In the IRL Community Environment and Health theme, we use “environment” in the traditional, biophysical sense. This theme is focused on the physical, chemical, and biotic factors (e.g., soil and other living things) that impact human health and health equity.

Team Akiak Native Community
A Holistic Environmental Health Approach to Promoting Health, Equity, and Water Security in One Alaskan Native Village

• Clarita Lefthand-Begay, University of Washington
• Maya Magarati, University of Washington
• Terri Parr, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI)

Team East Los Angeles
“Get the Lead Out!:” Promoting Community Resilience in the Face of Environmental Injustice

• Jill Johnston, University of Southern California
• mark! Lopez, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
• Bhavna Shamasunder, Occidental College

Team San Joaquin Valley
Participatory Assessment of Health Equity Impacts Through the Implementation of the Community Air Monitoring and Management

• Ricardo Cisneros, University of California Merced
• Jonathan London, University of California Davis
• Nayamin Martinez, Central California Environmental Justice Network

Team Martinsville
Groundwater Contamination and Health Equity in a Deindustrialized Midwestern Community

• Deborah Corcoran, Bloomin Tons Floral Co.
• Jennifer Johnson, Purdue University
• Sa Liu, Purdue University

Team Dallas
Joppa Environmental Equity Project: Examining the Impact of Air Pollution on Community Health and Redressing Environmental Racism

• Natalie Johnson, Texas A&M University
• Ping Ma, Texas A&M University
• Jim Schermbeck, Downwinders At Risk

Team Greensboro
Investigating Community Social Action to Identify, Remediate, Evaluate, and Sustain an Environmental Justice Initiative

• Kathleen Colville, Cone Health
• Sandra Echeverria, University of North Carolina Greensboro
• Stephen Sills, University of North Carolina Greensboro

Team ATL
REMOVE: A Community-Based Intervention to Advance Environmental Justice and Health

• Dajun Dai, Georgia State University
• Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, Spelman College
• Gwen Smith, Collier Heights Association for Revitalization, Resilience, and Sustainability (CHARRS)

Research Theme: Families and Child Health

The IRL Families and Child Health theme includes action-oriented research projects focused on supporting families and child health, and health equity. While research addressing all aspects of families is included, this theme has an emphasis on research addressing and supporting the health of fathers and their children.

Team Kentucky
Fostering Inter-Disciplinary Research-Practice Partnerships to Enhance Fathers’ Capacities to Promote Child Well-being

• David Cozart, Lexington Leadership Foundation
• Antonio Garcia, University of Kentucky
• Rafael Pérez-Figueroa, University of Kentucky

Team Massachusetts
Promoting Maternal Health Equity Through Collaborative Community Partnerships: Teaming Doulas, Providers and Families to Create Birth Equity

• Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, Tufts University
• Christina Gebel, Accompany Doula Care
• Audra Meadows, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Team Central Brooklyn
Understanding and Responding to the Determinants of Weathering in Central Brooklyn Black Youth Ages 18 to 24

• Rahwa Haile, State University of New York at Old Westbury
• Anthonine Pierre, Brooklyn Movement Center
• Tawandra Rowell-Cunsolo, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Team Chicago
The Effects of Hyper-Surveillance on the Health and Well-Being of Justice-Involved Families: A Structural Violence Perspective.

• Alana Gunn, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Sage Kim, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Linda Weatherspoon, Roll Call

Team Northern Nevada
A Study of the Influence of Housing Instability on Health and WellBeing for Latinx Families in Washoe County, Nevada

• Jessie Clark, University of Nevada Reno
• Julie Lucero, University of Nevada Reno
• Maria Pulido, ACTIONN

Team Justice for Native Children
An Exploration of Methods for Measuring the Impact of Culturally Grounded Interactions on the Health and Well-Being of Native Children

• Jessica Barnes-Najor, Michigan State University
• Ann Cameron, Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan
• Christine Sims, University of New Mexico

Team DC
It’s a Dad Thing: Fathers as Powerful Agents of Change in Reducing Disparities in Maternal Mortality in the District of Columbia

• Clayton Aristotle Rosenberg, Alliance of Concerned Men, Inc.
• Sherrie Flynt Wallington, the George Washington University
• Tony Yang, the George Washington University

Team Cincinnati
Civic Action for Refugee Empowerment: Building Healthy Families in Changing Transnational Context

• Brandi Blessett, University of Cincinnati
• Anjali Dutt, University of Cincinnati
• Bryan Wright, Cincinnati Compass

Read more about the 2020 IRL Teams in their cohort profiles on IRLeaders.org. 

Download the 2020 IRL Team Map and List here.

Congratulations to our 2020 IRL teams. We are honored to support your work!